Improvement in the manufacture of iron and steel



dling-hearth B, I locate UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JACOB JAMESON, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OI' IRON .AND STEEL.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent' No. 88,173, dated March 23, 1869.

To all rwhom, it may concern Be it known that I, JACOB JAMESON, of Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented .certain new and useful Improvements in the Manufacture of Steel and Iron; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, like letters indicating like parts wherever they occur.

To enable others skilled in Athe art to construct and use my invention I will proceed to describe it.

My invention relates to certain improvements in the process of making iron and steel direct from the ore by the use of mineral coal, and in the furnace used for that purpose.

Figure 1 is a transverse horizontal section on the linea' :c of Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal vertical section on the line y y ofFig. 1 of my improved furnace, intended for use with mineral coal.

In this case, I construct the furnace with.a series of closed chambers, O, for deoxidizing the ore preparatory to melting the same, as represented in the drawings, this part of the apparatus being the same as that described in my specification, previously tiled, and which therefore need not be herein further described. In front of these chambers O, and a little below them, I'arrange a puddling-hearth, B, as shown in Fig. 1, in a proper position to readily receive the prepared ore from the chambers C. In front of the hearth'B I locate a grate, A, on which the coal is hurried, after being prepared as hereinafter explained, there being a door, L, to the tire-grate or box, and another door, I, opening into the puddlinghearth, as represented in Fig. l, and by blue lines in Fig. 2. Directly in rear of the pudanother or third door, T, which opens direct into the heat-flue D, near the front part of said flue, this being intended for the introduction of bloomsfor heating them by the same ire that is used to melt the iron.

It should be understood, also, that I use the hot and damp blast, and also the carbon-chamber described in my patent of March 31, 1868; and that, with the exception of the improvements described in this and my application first previously filed, the furnace is constructed as described in said patent. 1n making iron or steel by this process th coal is first prepared by saturating it, in a suit-able vessel or box, with brine, or salt and water, and then injecting into and through the mass of coal a jet of steam, by which means the sulphur and other deleterious properties of the coal are, in a great measure, if not wholly, eradicated. The coal, having been thus prepared, is placed on the grate and ignited in the usual manner. The deoxidizingchambers O are then charged with ore and the fluxes, as heretofore described, and the ore,

when snfciently roasted, is worked along through the chambers, and down upon the paddling-hearth B, where it is melted and worked in the usual manner, the product being wrought-iron; or, by the introduction of carbon produced in the carbon-chambers, as described in my former patent, steel may be produced at will.

If it be desired to produce a snperiorquality of metal, I use about one-third of pigron with two-thirds of the deoxidized metal from the chambers, mixing them on th(` hearth B. By these means I am enabled to produce either wrought-iron or steel, direct from the ore, and to do so with the use of mineral coal, thus greatly simplifying and cheapening the production of iron and steel.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is l. The herein-described process of making iron or steel direct from the ore, with mineral coal, substantially as set forth.

2. The furnace for treating ores, ani producing iron and steel direct therefrom, when constructed and arranged to operate substantially as herein described.

JACOB JAMESON.

Witnesses:

H. B. MUNN, W. C. DODGE. 

